Document View

The same qualities that make sales representatives thrive and prosper in the hypercompetitive field of sales - intense drive, aggression and unfettered ambition - sometimes translate into rude, arrogant and hostile behavior when those reps deal with bosses, coworkers and support staff back at the home office. The best way to deal with top performers with personality problems is unclear. Managers may bend the rules for those who produce the most, while others may fire problem reps. Somewhere between ignoring bad behavior altogether and firing problem reps is another, more complicated option: working with the offending person in the hopes that he or she can be rehabilitated. Ways that a number of sales managers have handled difficult reps are discussed.

LIKE MOST MANAGERS, Gary Kenline loves hiring aggressive salespeople. But he's gotten more than he bargained for in one of his top reps, who has set herself the lofty goal of booking $1.5 million more in business this year than last.

Here's the problem: She's driving all of his other reps crazy with her combative, haughty attitude. She may be among the leaders of the company's 500-person sales force, but she frequently ignites turf wars with another top-producing rep. And lately, after attending a seminar on aggressive selling tactics, she's been telling anyone who will listen that those salespeople who aren't making big numbers don't belong in the business at all.

"The other day she brought two of our agents to tears," says Kenline, director of marketing for Hunt Real Estate in Williamsville, New York. "She said, `You're not producing enough, you're not dedicated enough, you're making the rest of us in this business look bad.' She's not in charge of them, but her attitude is, `Do you want losers in this company, or top producers like me?"'

Sound familiar? Most managers have encountered salespeople whose abrasiveness could make Mike Tyson run for cover. The same qualities that make those reps thrive and prosper in the hypercompetitive field of salesintense drive, chest-thumping aggression, and unfettered ambition-sometimes translate into rude, arrogant, and hostile behavior when those reps deal with bosses, coworkers, and support staff back at the home office.

They have temper tantrums and order people around. Or they go underground, by undermining the boss, resisting change, or causing dissent among their colleagues. "Some of my best salespeople have been obnoxious," says Hal Fahner, vice president of corporate marketing for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida in Jacksonville.

Of course, personality problems in marginal performers usually present no dilemmas-most managers simply fire them. But with top performers whose brattiness knows no bounds, the solution is unclear. Should the rules be bent for those who produce the most, no matter how difficult and disruptive they are? Or should managers hang tough and fire them if necessary? Should you try to change their attitude, their behavior, or both? If so, how do you go about doing that? Tackling questions such as these is one of the most daunting aspects of any sales manager's job.

Kenline, for one, had planned to meet with his disruptive rep to give her a warning: Cool it, or get out. (She transferred to another division of the company before they could meet.) "No person in my office is too big to let go," he says.

Inflated Egos

IN MANY WAYS, the prima-donna problem is inherent in sales. The field attracts flamboyant, sometimes difficult personalities. "Most high-performing salespeople are not your typical, traditional, follow-the-rules type of people," says Elaine Berke, president of EBI Consulting in Westport, Massachusetts, which helps companies improve organization and management performance. When these people start getting out of line, it's because "at the root of their behavior is an inflated sense of their own importance. They get to feel as though their companies couldn't get along without them."

Underneath that bravado, however, is a serious lack of self-esteem. Prima donnas need constant praise and positive reinforcement to prop up their hefty yet fragile egos, says Ginger Thaxton, president of Creative Management Consultants in Bristol, Rhode Island. Sales, with its emphasis on rankings and achieving ever-higher performance, gives them instant feedback. "They're very insecure. They're driven beyond the normal desire to do an outstanding job," Thaxton says. "They need to prove, usually to a parent who never thought they were acceptable, that they're worthy. They're trying to say by their outstanding performance, 'I really am OK as a person.' If they don't overachieve, they don't think they're acceptable. You would never guess this, because they're so obnoxious about being the greatest."

For a manager, one obvious way to deal with beastly reps is to avoid hiring them in the first place. This, of course, is easier said than done. During job interviews, managers should ask questions that elicit how candidates view their role in a sales team, how they define an effective work environment, and what they've done in the past to resolve a conflict with a coworker or supervisor. The question, "When do customers get you upset?" is a good one, Thaxton says, because it often will reveal if someone has a low tolerance for frustration.

"Watch out if their answers involve a normal part of the sales process," such as going over a proposal several times with a client who may need a little extra hand-holding, Thaxton says. If they can't seem to handle something as basic as this, they won't succeed in a high-pressure job like sales. It's also a good idea, especially in a team-selling environment, to get other sales reps involved in interviewing the candidate, she says.

And before even starting the hiring process, know exactly what personality type fits best in the corporate culture. Several years ago, Janice Szur, president of Automation Resource Corporation, a computer training firm in Okemos, Michigan, thought she needed an aggressive salesperson to sell her company's services. She ended up hiring someone who was too aggressive. "I hired him based on the fact that he was competitive, but he didn't fit in our culture," Szur says. "He fought over accounts all the time with other salespeople." Szur confronted him about his behavior, to no avail. Eventually, the salesman left on his own.

Hesitating to Act

OF COURSE, there's no foolproof way to aviod hiring a prima donna. In fact, it may be unavoidable, as some reps are so good, managers would be crazy not to hire them. The problem is, once a difficult rep is on the payroll and rubbing everyone the wrong way, some managers hesitate to do anything about it. "As long as they are producing, I turn the other cheek," Says Jim Harrington, director of sales and marketing for Omniplex World Services Corporation, an outsourcing provider in McLean, Virginia.

One top sales rep who reported to him in a precious job was so abrupt and demanding that support staff routinely put her requests at the bottom of the pile. That make her act even more like a jerk. Harrington met with her frequently to persuae her to cha ge her attitude, with only moderate success. "If she hadn't been making quota and above quota, I wouldn't have tolerated it," he says. Only once did he put his foot down and threaten to fire her, when she refused to share leads she got on her off hours that were in other peoples' territories. Thereafter, she agreed to play by the rules, at least when it came to sharing leads. "She had a way of constantly challenging you on the system," Harrington says.

That's typical prima donna behavior, and one of the ways it shows up in many sales organizations is over filling out reports. Again, many managers let their star salespeople off the hook. "I'm to the point where if I have to, I'll do the reports for them," Harrington says. "I'd rather have them out producing." When other reps complain, he tells them once they achieve similar numbers, they'll get the same perks.

The hands-off approach, however, can wreak havoc-setting double standards demoralizes those who are playing by the rules. Often the performance of everyone else on the sales team drops. One option, of course, is to simply refuse to tolerate any deviation from the rules, and fire those who won't, or can't, fall in line. Thaxton has worked with companies at which the productivity of sales teams has gone up after a particularly ill-behaved but highachieving salesperson has left. "A disruptive salesperson can demotivate a lot of other people," she says.

Jim Kouzes, chairman of Tom Peters Group Learning Systems in Palo Alto, California, agrees. "I believe in discipline," he says. "I have terminated highperforming salespeople because they were totally disruptive. Salespeople who don't fill out trip reports, who deviate on expenses, who meet their quota in the first eight months, then coast for the next four....You are ready to run your ship into an iceberg if you ignore that behavior."

Working It Out

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN ignoring bad behavior altogether and firing problem reps is another, more complicated, option: working with the offending person in the hopes that he can be rehabilitated. "Managers need to ask themselves, `Do I have the courage and discipline to turn this employee around?"' says Erik Van Slyke, a principal with HR Alliance, a human resources consulting firm in Greensboro, North Carolina. "You can do more harm than good taking a half-hearted approach," he says. "Your heart has to be there. If not, the employee will get mixed signals."

Van Slyke advises managers to rise above their own emotional response to a problem rep, and focus on behavior, not attitude. If several employees have said that a rep is spreading rumors and trying to undermine you, for instance, confront the person in a nonthreatening way about what has been saidand be ready to give examples. Do this in a neutral or nonthreatening setting; the employee's office, for instance, rather than yours. If the person denies having said anything, "by confronting the problem you've announced to them you're aware of it, and you've indirectly said your expectation is that it won't happen again," Van Slyke says.

The manager and rep should then agree that if the rep has a problem with something the manager has done, he should go directly to the manager. In 30 days, both should meet to evaluate progress. How to measure? If the manager is no longer hearing rumors, assume the undermining has stopped.

A tougher approach-barking orders and issuing ultimatums-won't work in most cases in which a manager is trying to rehabilitate a rep, Van Slyke warns. Instead, he suggests, managers should confront errant employees the same way they would a difficult sale. "Think of them as your worst customers," he says. "Don't sell by pushing it down their throats. Sell by understanding them so well that the employee, like the customer, will come to trust you."

Sometimes all it takes is for managers to adapt their styles to the particular type of difficult personality. Rick Kirschner, author of Dealing With People You Can't Stand: How To Bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst, says the best way to treat a pushy salesperson who exhibits "tank" behavior screaming at, denigrating, bullying, and accusing others-is to command respect. "You maintain control in their presence," Kirschner says. "Don't shout, don't attack. Just be highly assertive. Don't hem and haw. If you lose your self-control in front of a tank, you invite their scorn."

Are You the Problem?

IT'S COMMON TO BLAME reps for their problem behavior. But if a sales force is full of sniping, snarling, uncooperative reps, the problem could lie with the manager. It may be time to take a look in the mirror. "We often put the burden on the problem employee, when we ought to focus on the relationship to start with," Kouzes says.

Credible leaders, Kouzes says, know their own competence, values, and beliefs; keep commitments; appreciate that their employees have different skill levels, interests, and motivations; and show interest in the people who report to them. If you have credibility and empathy as a leader, that provides a kind of "social glue" that makes it much easier, when the time comes, to talk to people frankly about their unacceptable behavior, he says.

Managers also can change their perception of an employee by determining whether the problem is simply an annoying habit or something that truly has an impact on the company's bottom line. Omniplex's Harrington once managed a top sales rep whose grooming was atrocious. "His shoes were never shined, his suits looked horrible, he always wore the wrong color shirt," Harrington recalls. He talked to the rep about improving his image, without success. Finally, he realized the rep's appearance didn't seem to be affecting his sales, so he let it go. "Customers loved him," Harrington says. "They always bought from him. He had that knack."

Sometimes the best way to manage a prima donna is simply to disarm him. Managers can do that by acting as a coach or counselor rather than a judge or critic. Fahner of Blue Cross/Blue Shield recalls a salesperson he managed who had "one of the worst attitudes I've ever seen." The rep had inherited a weak territory, but also had a sour personality that was hurting his sales. "He had great instincts, he was a good thinker, but he just had a chip on his shoulder," Fahner says.

Fahner spent several months working with the rep, going on sales calls with him, and gently suggesting things he could do to improve-always meeting with great resistance. "He was critical of me," Fahner says. "I'd suggest something, and he'd say 'I don't think so. I'm doing OK this way.' You would have thought he was the boss and I was the employee."

Gradually, however, things started to change. The salesperson began taking Fahner's advice and his attitude improved, as did his performance. Later, Fahner even helped him find his next job. Fahner's philosophy is simple, and remarkably empathetic. "You have to prove you're not going to hurt them by not hurting them," he says. With the difficult rep, "I could feel a change in his attitude. Nothing was said directly, but there was a trust there."